1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique for transmitting information about an image forming apparatus, such as a printer or a copying machine, to a central management apparatus via a network.
2. Description of the Related Art
Currently, a monitoring apparatus collects via a network such as the Internet, device information of an image forming apparatus such as a printer and a copying machine. The device information is then centrally managed and analyzed. The device information includes configuration information and operation information. More specifically, the configuration information includes network information such as an internet protocol (IP) address and a media access control (MAC) address, information on the device type, and a serial number that is unique to the apparatus. Further, the operation information includes various types of counter information such as a number of printouts and a number of times a component is used in the image forming apparatus, failure information, current firmware information, and hard disk information. A central management apparatus collects the configuration information and the operation information directly from the image forming apparatus or via the monitoring apparatus on a local network of the image forming apparatus. The central management apparatus collects various types of configuration information and operation information, according to objective and usage. Transmission of the various types of information is different in whether regular transmission of the information is necessary, immediacy, and transmission data amount.
A portion of the above-described operation information is regularly transmitted based on a schedule that varies according to the type of the information. For example, the counter information used for charging is frequently transmitted (e.g., every other day). The daily counter information is regularly transmitted from the image forming apparatus or the monitoring apparatus to the central management apparatus. Since a time or a date of a deadline for charging is determined for the charging process, it is necessary to regularly transmit the counter information for charging by strictly keeping to the designated date and time. On the other hand, since the firmware information is not frequently updated, the firmware information may be regularly transmitted once a week, and a small delay may be excusable.
Further, immediacy is required in transmission of the failure information. If an error requiring servicing such as a service call occurs in the image forming apparatus, it is necessary to quickly transmit the failure information to the central management apparatus to promptly call a service personnel.
Furthermore, with regard to the transmission data amount, a system that analyzes and counts print tendencies of a large number of users transmits a large amount of data with respect to the operation information. Moreover, in recent years, one monitoring apparatus monitors thousands of image forming apparatuses, so that the data amount to be transmitted increases along with the number of apparatuses to be monitored.
There is a case where a delay in transmission may be generated due to the large amount of data to be transmitted, and it becomes difficult to start transmission strictly on schedule or achieve immediacy. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-328742 discusses a method for transmitting, when transmitting the charging counter information to the central management apparatus, only the necessary information.
However, since much of the counter information to be used in charging is necessary in performing the charging process, it is desirable to employ a different method that is effective in solving the delay in the transmission on the transmitting side, instead of narrowing down the necessary information. Further, the transmission time of the counter information to be used in charging and the transmission time of the other operation information that are scheduled to be transmitted at different transmission intervals may overlap. In such a case, a delay may be generated in transmitting the charging counter information on the transmission side.
Furthermore, if processing performance of the monitoring apparatus is concentrated on regular transmission of the operation information, a monitoring process for immediately transmitting the failure information may become affected.